Place of primary schools leavers in the development of the rural areas-occupational problems and prospects
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Date
1976
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
For a considerabic account of time, Tanzania has been discoursing the employment problem of the youths coming out of the primary schools. The national policy of “Education for self -Reliance" demands that the youths coming out of the schools should work in the rural areas where the majority of the people live. The parents and the children on the other hand think that the solution to the employment problem does not lie in the rural vocation but wage employment and secondary education or training which leads to wage employment. the study believes that though the attitudes of the children and the parents may be a hindrance to the implementation of the policy, the real problem lies in the underdeveloped nature of Tanzanian's economy in general and the rural sector in particular. the study holds that it is presumptuous to believe that the youths will stay in the rural areas if no plans are in hand to change the rural economy to accomodate them. The purposes of the study therefore were to examine the activities which 50 of the Kibakwe (Mpwapwa) primary school leavers of 1973 and 1974 were doing in their ecological areas after coming out of school. On the basis of the data obtained it would be possible to assess the economic viability of these activities and the efficiency of resource utilization. the study also aimed to examine the parents' and children's attitudes to schooling and the rural vocation so as to gain an insight into how the policy is accepted by them. Instly the study purported to examine the family characteristics of the school leavers engaging in different activities. It was found that the parents' and children's aspirations were for wage employment or further education. This was manifested by children repeating classes, joining vocational training and entering private secondary school. About three quarters of the school leavers left the villages for other places to look for jobs or places in schools where they could repeat classes. At the time of the study, 48% of the children were in agriculture, but their production records and those of their parents were very low. The economy of the villages was found to be generally poor. The villages had no plans to utilize neither the school leavers nor the local natural resources on cooperative basis. The failure to merge the manpower coming out of the school and the existing economic possibilities of the villages did not provide a sound economic environment in which the children could stay and earn a comfortable living. Hence they were aspiring for wage employment. The problem of the school leavers was found to be reinforced by a lack of administrative capacity to mobilize the existing human and natural resources of the rural areas. The study concludes that the problem of the school leavers is a part of the whole question of an underdeveloped economy with its imbalances between the rural and town in Tanzania on one hand, and Tanzania and the developed countries on the other in favour of towns and the developed countries. It then suggests ways of disengaging from the world system of underdevelopment.
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF LB1513.L4M6)
Keywords
Education, Primary, Tanzania
Citation
Mnyawonga, Msawulile Clement (1976) Place of primary schools leavers in the development of the rural areas-occupational problems and prospects, Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam